Members in the Media

"The earth is not a great clock. It's a good clock, but atomic standards are much better." - Len Cutler, Agilent Technologies, New York Times, January 17, 2002

". . . literally bolted to the side of the telescope, so when the telescope moves, the laser goes with you. You create your own reference star." - Deanna Pennington, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, on how adaptive optics can improve imaging, Los Angeles Times, January 28, 2002

"The Cardassians are aliens in Star Trek whose ambition is to take over the world as quickly as possible, i.e., accelerated expansion. The new Cardassian term to us looks alien and generates accelerated expansion." - Katherine Freese, University of Michigan, explaining how the universe is expanding, Dallas Morning News, January 28, 2002

"We might even be able to see Hawking radiation with the naked eye" - Fulvio Melia, University of Arizona, on constructing a desktop model of a black hole, Nature Science Update, January 24, 2002

"These are phenomenal temperatures, yet they are being achieved only one metre from the wall of the device." - Edward Doyle, UCLA, on reducing turbulence in super-heated plasmas inside a tokomak, The Irish Times, January 24, 2002

"Africa has an enormous reservoir of brains, and physics always needs bright, excited people. With the right encouragement anyone can participate in physical science, and you need one bright generation to change the state of science on the continent." - David Gross, UC Santa Barbara, Cape Argus News, January 31, 2002

"I had become head of physics at 35, and the thought of 20 more years was not appealing. I asked the vice-chancellor if I could switch my research to improving teaching and learning in universities and he agreed. It kept me young. I'd always been interested in teaching and research. In the 1960s I belonged to a physics group who were writing quite a lot about teaching. I had certainly reflected on how orthodox methods did not work." - Lewis Elton, University College London, The Times Education Supplement, January 4, 2002

"People hear 'nuclear' and 'power' and they think 'fission'. That's not what we are doing - we are not splitting uranium." - James P. Blanchard, University of Wisconsin, on making micro- and nano- nuclear batteries, New York Times, January 10, 2002

"With all my respect to Evgeny-san, our ceramics is better and we got 8.79% of the weight reduction. Our programme of research has already shown much better efficiency." - Takashi Nakamura, Tokyo Institute of Technology, on his claims to verify the Podkletnov effect, New Scientist, January 12, 2002

"Where are all these zillions of states hiding in a black hole ? It is quite literally incomprehensible." - Emil Mottola, Los Alamos National Laboratory, on why gravastars make more sense than black holes, New Scientist, January 19, 2002

"The uranium deal is the only thing that stands between anarchy and stability in the Russian nuclear weapon complex." - Thomas L. Neff, MIT, on the sale of Russian enriched uranium to the US, Los Angeles Times, quoted in The Moscow Times, January 21, 2002

"It didn't explain everything. But you don't expect that on the first try." - Mark Shegelski, University of Northern British Columbia, on attempts to understand the motion of stones in the sport of curling, Salt Lake City Tribune, January 24, 2002.

"They've been thinking about this a long time. And so, the question is when did they start in earnest to learn how to make a nuclear explosive?" - David Albright, Institute for Science and International Security, on whether al Qaeda is making nuclear weapons, CNN, January 24, 2002.

"If you compare what the thing looks like and all the numbers, all the numbers match up. To be as careful as possible, it's either a Scud or someone's replica of a Scud." - David Wright, Union of Concerned Scientists, on what kind of missiles the Army was planning to test in Alaska, Anchorage Daily News, January 24, 2002

"The priority is to get everyone dancing and celebrate life through dance." - Doug Jensen, Fermilab, on the Silk and Thistle Scottish Country Dance group, which used to meet at Fermilab before increased security in the wake of September 11, Chicago Daily Herald, January 24, 2002